Word Wise and Content Rich, Grades 7-12: Five Essential Steps to Teaching Academic Vocabulary

by Douglas Fisher

This book is a natural for a teacher study group. It is well worth the time spent reading and discussing with colleagues because the ideas it holds are basic to rethinking and transforming vocabulary teaching. -Karen Bromley Binghamton University, SUNY
How do you teach students the words that are crucial to unlocking the concepts in your content area? Until now "assign, define, test" has been the default strategy. But with Word Wise and Content Rich , Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey bring vocabulary in out of the cold and into the heart of daily classroom practice in English, math, science, and history. Word Wise and Content Rich offers a five-part framework for teaching vocabulary that's tailored to the needs of adolescent learners yet mindful of the demands on content-area teachers. Grounded in current research, this framework gives students the multiple encounters necessary to lock in the meaning of new words forever. Fisher and Frey's five-step modelshows you how Use Word Wise and Content Rich , and close the word gap between low-achieving and high-achieving students. With its strategies, every student in your class-in your school-can access the textbook and develop the vocabulary needed for success in content-area reading. Read Word Wise and Content Rich and get the last word on great vocabulary teaching.

Genres: Teaching, Education

184 pages, Paperback

First published May 8, 2008

About the author

Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., is an educator and Professor of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High & Middle College.

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Reviews

[BookChampions · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm utterly shocked how much I value this book. I admit my expectations were low, but I picked up this book because I have been noticing that it is often vocabulary that keeps my students from finding success in academic settings and I wanted to be a better teacher for them. I've tried to read books like this, on vocabulary, on grammar, on inquiry, and I usually end up bored stiff, beat over the head with idealistic scenarios, dull prose, and scientific jargon devoid of realistic passion for the subject at hand. But Frey and Fisher's book, Word Wise and Content Rich is an extremely rich argument for teaching word-learning strategies instead of assigning vocabulary lists. I was expecting to find a few tidbits to pull into my classroom, but they framed their book in a way that welcomed me in. They are both unpretentious and compelling; they challenged me in ways I never could have guessed.

I have a feeling that mainly English teachers are going to read this book, and that is a huge shame because a big part of their argument is that ALL teachers in a building should be involved in teaching reading strategies and vocabulary connected to their discipline. At least in my school, it seems like the humanities teachers (especially English teachers) are always talking about literacy, and the rest of the teachers are never invited into the dialogue, even when they assign textbooks, expect essays to be written, and teach concepts full of complicated technical language. At our school we have a reading class called Academic Literacy, and it originally was envisioned that teachers in all content areas would teach it; in its current form only English teachers do this work, and I wonder how much faster students would pick up these tools if all their teachers were equipping them with this knowledge. Frey and Fisher are sensitive to the wide needs of content-area teachers, expertly using examples that stretch across all disciplines; actually there are few examples from English classrooms in the entire book. Hell, they even show how gym teachers can use vocabulary instruction in their classrooms!

I highly recommend this one. I'd really like to see more teachers released from one-shot PD sessions presented by non-teachers and instead given time to read and discuss valuable, well-structured, balanced and engaging books like this one with others that are in the trenches, working with young people day in and day out.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

These authors are credited with writing what some of my school district leadership calls "the Bible" (known in less revered circles as "Better Learning Through Structured Teaching"). This past summer, I attended a district PD training on vocabulary, teaching and technology,  and that's when I discovered that the author pair wrote other books for teachers, including this book about academic vocabulary.

I probably put too high hopes on these 150 pages; it was, in fact, helpful and offered some practical ideas.  I just don't feel like a new teacher after having read it.

My biggest take-away is that kids will only learn the words if you do more than read and write the words. Students need to apply the vocabulary into verbal communication and conversation, and the authors give some suggestions on how to accomplish that.

Frankly, I have been struggling to improve my students' vocabulary since I started teaching 5 years ago.  Most of my peers seem to have relegated vocabulary as a past tense piece of curriculum., so I've banged around in the dark alone, trying to nail this down.

I have tried the cartoon mnemonic book that these authors endorse. It was mostly just what my daughters call "extra."

I've taken to having students create a glossary in the back of their writing journal (also suggested here). I plan to keep doing it but it didn't seem to help or even benefit students in any way.  Maybe adding  something to it will help?

My teaching wife suggested I play some vocabulary based games, which these authors actually list. I played Quizziz (newly renamed Wayground), and the repetition seemed to move kids toward mastery. In addition to some new games (like finding templates in google slides for $50,000 Pyramid or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire or Wheel of Fortune), this was something I have NOT considered...

the book suggests the students create the games that they then play in school. I plan to try that this year.

I think I'll also try the paint chip idea (which we did in the pd class this summer)... and carry the word sort exercise and the word map exercise over from my PreAP classes into my academic classes. Why had I not considered doing that before?

[Troy Ketch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent approach to vocabulary instruction. I think an individual teacher will find this very useful as a guide for designing vocabulary lessons. However, its real power is in how it will influence the design of a school's entire vocabulary curriculum, across grade levels and disciplines.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed everything I've read by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, and this book is no exception. Since the book was published in 2008, some of the resources mentioned are dated, particularly URLs. (Some no longer work.) I still found value and inspiration in this book, and I'm excited to make vocabulary and word study a more intentional part of my lessons in the upcoming year.

[Daniel Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would recommend for any educator. This book explains different strategies, describes examples of them being used in particular classroom, includes student work, and ties everything back to research. I appreciate that the book includes references to so many resources, research articles, and other sources that I can draw on for inspiration.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fabulous! It gives helpful suggestions, models how to introduce activities and provides resources for further study. I highly recommend this book to those wanting to improve their vocab instruction in the content areas.

[★ jess ★ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Professional Development
For secondary Reading
easy to read, great vocabulary strategies, helpful for secondary teachers
Presents a clear explanation of how vocabulary should be taught to secondary students...

[Jill Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably more useful for other content areas. A few great ideas gleaned.